To beat the drums about "big pharma" without recognizing that the faith/alternative medicine crowd is raking in huge profits is dishonest at best. They don't give away those completely not proven to do anything and that's the way they like it cures.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

I vaccinated myself last week! An MMR booster (hadn't had one since '95) and a Varicella (my mom, 1/2 sis, and myself have never had the pox but we've been exposed, but I had a blood titer and I wasn't immune).

_________________"T-shirts are not allowed in heaven, Karyn. They don't do casual Fridays." - Amandabear

Seriously, I wonder why these people don't say the same about antibiotics. They're a cocktail of chemicals, too. With possible side-effects! And Big Pharma make money selling them!

Yeah, vaccines make a pretty bad proxy for resistance to pharmaceutical excess. The DTaP jab, for example, costs about $25 and is good for ten years. You might as well talk about the billions, not millions, Big Pharma is raking in on aspirin.

We decided we are going to find a private place (they're not on the NHS) to get the chicken pox jab for our kids -- we're homeschooling for primary school, so they're unlikely to be exposed anyway. I had the pox at 15 and my whole body was covered in pox-zits. I'm really glad my husband is on board with this. He said one less sickness we have to deal with is fine with him.

I don't know (obviously, my parents didn't throw a party, cos I didn't get the pox until I was 15 -- finally caught it off my little sis), but it seems like less hassle to just skip my kids being sick altogether.

With Re I was against the chicken pox vaccine still and said i would wait until she was going to school then i got it for her. Her Dr. even agreed with me. Now with Miles he's vaccinated already for it. I remember having it as a kid. It was horrible and I had the flu at the same time. Worst thing ever plus it was Halloween! Worst Halloween ever!

I don't know anyone who's had the shingles vaccine, but if I had had chicken pox I would get the shingles vaccine for sure! I've never had chicken pox (confirmed by blood test) and haven't gotten the CP vaccine because from what I've read they're not sure if you can get shingles anyway if you've had the CP vaccine, and I don't want to risk getting shingles. (I would also hate to get CP as an adult, but it could happen)

My dad had shingles a few years ago (has was...58?) and he was so miserable. Seriously, dude barely ever gets sick and when he does he is still out and about and working, but with shingles he was stuck in bed for over a week and in terrible pain. He got the vaccine after recovering from shingles to protect against recurrence, per his doctor's advice.

Shingles and chicken pox are the worst. So happy kids can get vaccinated for that whole mess now! I'm not sure why there's the age restriction for the shingles vax, except that your likelihood of getting it shoots up after 50, so maybe it's just not worth it or maybe the immunity doesn't last too long so you'd have to get it again if you'd gotten it at, say, 30.

When I was little we didn't really do pox parties in my area but it was just taken as kind of a given that you'd get it at some point.

Personally, I enjoyed it as the greatest week of second grade. I think I gave it to my sister, who's 3.5 years older, and she did not have such a great time, though. No permanent damage, but she was pretty miserably itchy. And then she gave it to our parakeet, who died. I think that was one of the vaccines Vi has had, but it's kind of weird to me to see a vaccine for something that was no big deal when I was a kid.

I had it in 4th grade and it was horrible. We gave L the vaccine because I would hate to see her that miserable and itchy. Plus I still have scars from it (I failed at "just don't scratch"). I didn't even know parakeets could get it and die from it.

But the toddlers who went to a local pox party seem to all have had very mild cases, so I guess it can go either way.

Thanks for the information on shingles - I had heard that the vaccine doesn't prevent against shingles, but it makes sense that we just don't know yet.

I think he's got chicken pox mixed up with chicken nuggets. (Sorry, that's not a very vegan thing to say. But I couldn't resist, so vegan purgatory it is for a while)

I'm not 100% certain that this is what the parakeet died from, but he got sick right after my sister, and I always figured the name was because it was bird-related. He didn't go outside or anything, so it would be quite a coincidence. I don't remember what the exact symptoms were, but I think there might've been some unusual pooping. I was young.

Anyway, I did vaccinate V, but the "oh, we don't really know how that's going to work out" aspects of the vaccine make me a little wary of it. But what we've learned in the last 20 years or so assuaged my fears mostly.